JDB in AZ, Hurray.

[Doobly Dunbar]

1. Who is the named plaintiff in the suit?

Cach LLC

2. What is the name of the law firm handling the suit? (should be listed at the top of the complaint.)

Neuheisel Law Firm P.C.

3. How much are you being sued for?

Roughly 1200 dollars

4. Who is the original creditor? (if not the Plaintiff)

First National Bank of Omaha\Union Bank

5. How do you know you are being sued? (You were served, right?)

Served 

6. How were you served? (Mail, In person, Notice on door)

Officer of court served roommate

7. Was the service legal as required by your state?

Yes

8. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued?

Yes, they made numerous phone calls until I asked them to contact me through print

9. What state and county do you live in?

AZ, Maricopa

10. When is the last time you paid on this account? (looking to establish if you are outside of the statute of limitations)

Roughly 2 years ago

11. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out:

6 years

12. What is the status of your case? Suit served? Motions filed? You can find this by a) calling the court or  looking it up online (many states have this information posted - when you find the online court site, search by case number or your name).

New case

13. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?)

No

14. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? Note: if you haven't sent a debt validation request, don't bother doing this now - it's too late.

No

15. How long do you have to respond to the suit? (This should be in your paperwork). If you don't respond to the lawsuit notice you will lose automatically. In 99% of the cases, they will require you to answer the summons, and each point they are claiming. We need to know what the "charges" are. Please post what they are claiming. Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit?

3 days left, served on the 8th and there's 20 days total to respond

16. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affidavit? Statements from the OC? Contract? List anything else they attached as exhibits.

There is a card member agreement, a letter from the bank to me indicating they sold the debt to CACH LLC(address is wrong), and a statement with an account summary, payment information and accrual of late fees. 

 

 

They sent me a letter that indicated that they were willing to settle for a lump sum, or continue with judgement but not pursue and action of collection if I agreed to pay off the debt(plus fees) in payments. I contacted them to settle and the terms of lump settlement was fairly close to the full debt amount. I must file within the next few days. Honestly I would like to settle but they told me that I only had until the 30th of January to do so but I won't be able to come up with that amount in time. What is the appropriate route here? Help!

[Harry Seaward]

16 hours ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

15. How long do you have to respond to the suit? 

3 days left, served on the 18th and there's 20 days total to respond

If you were served on the 18th of January, you have until the 7th of February to respond.

Considering the amount of the debt and the fact that you're being sued by a debt buyer, your best shot at making this go away is if you could get the case into arbitration.  The problem I'm finding is that every agreement I can find for First National Bank of Omaha has the following paragraph:

Quote

“Ordinary Claims” are not subject to this arbitration provision and may be resolved through litigation. A Claim will be considered an “Ordinary Claim” if all three of the following are true: (1) the only remedy being sought for the Claim is monetary damages; (2) the recovery being sought for the Claim is less than $25,000, excluding interest and costs; and (3) the only parties to litigation to resolve the Claim will be you, us and/or Related Parties.

Unless you or someone else has a FNBO agreement without this language, I don't see arbitration being a viable option.

I've attached the oldest agreement I could find.  There's no date, but the CFPB website had it in with the 2011 agreements.
creditcardagreement_4951.pdf

[Doobly Dunbar]

That was a typo! I was served on the 8th. So I have until Monday the 30th to file I believe since the 20th day falls on a Saturday. I went through the copy of my contract and it has the same paragraph under the arbitration section. 

Ideally I would not pay unless it was to the original debtor. In any case, I would be willing to settle but they want close to the amount that I owe in order to do so. I will not have this money in the timeframe provided which is until Monday say said. It will take me ~1-2 weeks (tax return) in order for me to accumulate enough funds. My questions:

1. I there any reasonable hope of fighting this?

2. I'd like to convince them to extend the timeline for settlement. If I file a response, would that instantly take settlement off the table? I would like to avoid extra fees being accrued for me filing and them having to come to pretrial. Assuming they win the judge could make me pay attorney fees and fees of the court could they not? I'd like to avoid paying such fees not only because it is inconvenient but I was hoping to use this money for medical related fees I haven't been able to resolve.  

3. Could I convince them to make a lesser settlement?

4. They gave me the option of a payment plan but I believe they'd charge me more than the debt amount to take this option. Also they said they'd still seek judgement without seekin garnishment or similar measures unless I'd missed a payment. Which I wouldn't since I could pay it off in two weeks.

5. If I do seek a payment plan of any sort, I should still file a response, correct?

In my limited knowledge, my options seem two fold: Show up in court and lose where I'd explain my hardships to the judge. The outcome being I would pay the full amount of the debt plus whatever fees they'd throw my way. Or I could ask to set up a payment plan with the first payment being delayed until two weeks out where I'd have more money or if they want it sooner I could make a payment tomorrow (paycheck). Those both seem fairly lame but without your help I'll probably lean towards the latter option.  

[Harry Seaward]

14 minutes ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

1. I there any reasonable hope of fighting this?

In court, you will be at the court's discretion as to what it feels is good evidence of the debt.  Occasionally the court doesn't accept statements and bills of sale, but there is no way to guarantee this with any particular court.  If you decide to fight it, I will help you as best as I can, but just go in to it knowing it's probable you will end up with a judgment against you for the full amount of the debt plus attorneys' fees and costs.  (The fees and costs could realistically equal the  amount of the debt so ~$3,000 total.)

 

22 minutes ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

2. I'd like to convince them to extend the timeline for settlement. If I file a response, would that instantly take settlement off the table? I would like to avoid extra fees being accrued for me filing and them having to come to pretrial. Assuming they win the judge could make me pay attorney fees and fees of the court could they not? I'd like to avoid paying such fees not only because it is inconvenient but I was hoping to use this money for medical related fees I haven't been able to resolve.  

Filing an answer does not necessarily increase their costs.  Making discovery requests will, however, and they will also have to file a disclosure statement within 40 days of when you file your answer.  A disclosure statement is literally a 5 minute process, but they will probably bill an hour @ $150-$200/hr for it.    I don't know of an iron-clad strategy to convince them to extend the timeline for settlement.  They have the upper hand and they know it.  About all you can do is run up their legal bill (to an extent, usually limited to a $750-$1500 cap) but that will simply be tacked on to whatever judgment they end up getting.

27 minutes ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

3. Could I convince them to make a lesser settlement?

You can certainly try.  Again, they have the upper hand in any settlement negotiations, unless you just simply don't care about them getting a judgment against you. 

29 minutes ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

4. They gave me the option of a payment plan but I believe they'd charge me more than the debt amount to take this option. Also they said they'd still seek judgement without seekin garnishment or similar measures unless I'd missed a payment. Which I wouldn't since I could pay it off in two weeks.

Yes, this is called a stipulated judgment.  Basically you'd make your payments and they would satisfy the judgment upon completion of the payment agreement, but if you're late on even one payment, they can go straight to court to get a wage garnishment and levy your bank accounts.

Did you tell them you could have it paid in 2 weeks?

32 minutes ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

5. If I do seek a payment plan of any sort, I should still file a response, correct?

Yes.  If you don't file an answer, they can get a default judgment and then they can do whatever they want with the judgment.

 

35 minutes ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

In my limited knowledge, my options seem two fold: Show up in court and lose where I'd explain my hardships to the judge. The outcome being I would pay the full amount of the debt plus whatever fees they'd throw my way. Or I could ask to set up a payment plan with the first payment being delayed until two weeks out where I'd have more money or if they want it sooner I could make a payment tomorrow (paycheck). Those both seem fairly lame but without your help I'll probably lean towards the latter option.  

This pretty much sums it up.  You could have good luck in court, but if not, your assessment is pretty accurate as far as them getting a judgment for the debt and costs.  The judge won't care about your hardships.  At least not as far as finding you responsible to repay the debt.  He may be sympathetic, but there is nothing in the law that says hardships are valid reasons for not repaying a debt.

[Doobly Dunbar]

Okay, thank you for you help! When I do file a response, are there different types to file? I am assuming I would still have to show up at the pretrial of some kind where the judge would advise towards settlement of some kind? Also the American Rule doesn't apply in Arizona does it?

Also for curiosity's sake, what if I just said f*** it and went to court and bit it and didn't pay them. How likely would it be that they'd pursue garnishment and etc?

[Goody_Ouchless]

1 hour ago, Doobly Dunbar said:

Also for curiosity's sake, what if I just said f*** it and went to court and bit it and didn't pay them. How likely would it be that they'd pursue garnishment and etc?

Not worth the risk if there is any way you can pay. I would try calling and attempt to reach someone sensible that will accept your offer to settle in two weeks, or whatever. Contrary to the myth that these are dark, evil places waiting to "catch" people, they are really just like the Payment Counter at the Electric Company. Waiting two weeks for you to get this off their books makes their job easier.

There are no "Perry Mason" moments - they don't have the time, energy or interest in pulling a "gotcha" - just be polite and professional.